Oil Sketches – Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)

Frederic Edwin Church
Study for Apotheosis to Thomas Cole
ca. 1847
oil on paper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

"Frederic Edwin Church was perhaps the best-known representative of the Hudson River School of landscape painting as well as one of its most traveled.  Born in Hartford in 1826, he was the privileged son of Joseph Church, a jeweler and banker of that city, who interceded with Connecticut scion and collector Daniel Wadsworth to persuade the landscape painter Thomas Cole to accept his son as a pupil.  From 1844 to 1846 Church studied with Cole in his Catskill, New York studio and accompanied him on sketching sojourns in the Catskill Mountains and the Berkshires of Massachusetts.  At one point, the master characterized the student as having "the finest eye for drawing in the world."  Following his term with Cole, Church established a studio in New York City and quickly seized a reputation, less for the allegorical landscapes that had distinguished Cole's output, than for expansive New York and New England views that synthesized sketches of varying locales into vivid compositions."

– from an essay by Kevin J. Avery on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at the Metropolitan Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Cloud Study
ca. 1860-70
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Woodland Study
1865
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Moonlight, Church's Farm
ca. 1865
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Alpine Lake
1868
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Imaginary South American Landscape
ca. 1853-55
oil on paper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Botanical Study
ca. 1865-66
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Pitajaya Fruit, Colombia
1853
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Palm Trees, Jamaica
1865
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Butterfly over Water
ca. 1865
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Parthenon at Night
1869
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Broken Column of the Parthenon
1869
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Classical Ruins, Syria
1868
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederic Edwin Church
Sculpture in the Theater of Dionysus, Athens
1869
oil on cardboard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Painted Evocations of the Classical World (now in Stockholm)

Simon Peter Tilemann
Roman Triumphal Parade
1641
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Pieter-Lastman-
Dido's Sacrifice to Juno
1630
oil on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Gérard de Lairesse
Achilles discovered by Ulysses among the daughters of Lycomedes
ca. 1675-80
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Bertholet Flemalle
Achilles wounded in the Heel
before 1675
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"A fragmented wall painting from the first century C.E. shows two figures who have been thought to be Apollo and Paris, both equipped with bow and arrow.  Because the figures are static and because there is some indication of a structure in the scene, I think it may depict the late version of Achilles' death in which he is ambushed in the temple of Thymbraean Apollo.  Two reliefs from the third century C.E. more certainly depict this story.  Bronze paneling on a chariot (called the "Tensa Capitolina") displays a number of scenes from the life of Achilles, including one thought to depict Paris aiming an arrow at Achilles as Apollo points to his lower leg.  The unarmored Achilles stands before an altar, unaware of danger behind him."

– Jonathan Burgess, from Achilles' Heel: The Death of Achilles in Ancient Myth (in the journal Classical Antiquity, October 1995)

Johan Fredrik Hörling
Scene from Antiquity
1746
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Carl Marcus Tuscher
Mercury confiding the infant Bacchus to the Nymphs on Nysa
before 1751
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Pompeo Batoni
Acis and Galatea threatened by Polyphemus
1761
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Toussaint Gelton
Diana in Landscape
1660
oil on copper
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Thomas Blanchet
Cleobis and Biton
before 1689
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"This discourse of Solon's, with its cataloguing of  all the ways in which Tellus had been truly happy, had certainly served to pique Croesus' interest; and so it was, confident that he would be named the runner-up at least, he asked Solon for the name of the second happiest person on his list.  "Cleobis and Biton," Solon answered promptly, "two young men of Argos, because they never lacked for means, and also because of their remarkable physical strength.  Not only were they both prize-winning athletes, but there is also the following story told about them.  The episode took place during an Argive festival in honour of Hera, when their mother urgently needed to be driven to the temple in their cart, but early in the day, before the oxen had been brought back from the fields.  There being no time to lose, the two young men shouldered the yoke themselves and pulled the cart, with their mother riding on top of it, for a full 45 stades, all the way to the temple.  Everyone who had gathered for the festival was a witness to this exploit, and then, in its wake, the two young men died in the best way possible: a divinely authored proof that it is better to be dead than alive.  The Argives kept crowding around them, congratulating them on their strength, and the women of the city kept telling their mother how fortunate she was in her children.  In due course, such was the rapture of her joy at her sons' achievement and the fame they had won, that she went to stand before the statue of Hera, and prayed to the goddess that she would bestow upon her children, her Cleobis and Biton, who had brought her such great honour, the greatest blessing that it is possible for mortals to be granted.  The mother finished her prayer; and then came the sacrifices and the feasting; and then the young men passed inside the temple and fell asleep, never to wake up again; and in this way their lives were brought to a close.  The Argives made statues of them, which were then sent to Delphi – for it was clear that they had been the very best that men can be."

– from The Histories of Herodotus (ca. 440 BC), translated by Tom Holland (Viking, 2013)

Thorald Læssøe
Temple of Venus and Roma in the Forum, Rome
ca. 1840-50
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Jan Baptist Weenix
Harbour with Antique Ruins
1648
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Johan Pasch
Ruinous Palace Arcade with opulent Still-life
before 1769
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Gustaf Söderberg
Classical Temple in Agrigento, Sicily
before 1875
oil on paper, mounted on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Constantin Hansen
Temple of Minerva on the Forum of Nerva. Rome
ca. 1840
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Italian Stage Design before 1900

Anonymous Italian artist
Stage Design - Garden Architecture
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Italian artist
Stage Design - Three Side-wings and part of Proscenium Frame
ca. 1725
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena
 Stage Design - Palace Atrium supported by Columns and Pillars
ca. 1770
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Clytemnestra (to her attendant) –

"You there!  Yes you – lift up
these offerings for me.
I will offer prayers to this our king
and loosen the fears that hold me now.
Do you hear me, Apollo?
I call you my champion!
But my words are guarded, for I am not among friends.
It wouldn't do to unfold the whole tale
with her standing here.
She has a destroying tongue in her
and she does love
to sow wild stories all over town.
So listen. I'll put it this way,
last night was a night of bad dreams
and ambiguous visions.
If they bode well for me, Lycian king, bring them to pass.
Otherwise, roll them back on my enemies!
And if there are certain people around
plotting to pull me down
from the wealth I enjoy,
do not allow it.
I want everything to go on as it is,
untroubled.
It suits me – this grand palace life
in the midst of my loved ones
and children – at least the ones
who do not bring me hatred and pain.

These are my prayers, Apollo.
Hear them.
Apollo,
grant them.
Gracious to all of us as we petition you.
And for the rest, though I keep silent,
I credit you with knowing it fully.
You are a god.
It goes without saying,
the children of Zeus see all things.
Amen."

– from the Electra of Sophocles, translated by Anne Carson (The Greek Tragedy in New Translations, Oxford University Press, 2001)

Angelo Toselli
Stage Design - Pedestal of a Monument
ca. 1800
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Angelo Toselli
Stage Design - Underground Vaulted Space with Tombs
ca. 1800-1820
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Italian artist
Stage Design - Palace Staircase
ca. 1800-1825
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Italian artist
Stage Design - Entrance to the Bowels of the Earth
ca. 1800-1825
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Antonio Giuseppe Basoli
Stage Design - Interior, a Sitting Room
ca. 1810
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Antonio Giuseppe Basoli
Stage Design - Roman Bath
ca. 1810-1830
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Italian artist
Design for Stage Curtain - Parnassus, Apollo, and the Muses
ca. 1812
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Design for Stage Curtain - Apollo and Marsyas
1800-1801
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Stage Design - Prison Interior
ca. 1820
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Luigi Ricci
Stage Design - Kitchen
ca. 1860
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Gaëtano Malagodi
Stage Design - Cloister at Night
1869
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Neoclassical Drawings from Italy

Charles Townley (collector)
Terracotta Campana relief of Mounted Warrior battling Amazon
ca. 1768-1805
drawing
British Museum

Charles Townley (collector)
Antique Bust of Clytie
ca. 1768-1805
drawing
British Museum

Charles Townley (collector)
Sculpture group of Nymph and Satyr
ca. 1768-1805
drawing
British Museum

Sestina: Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni

To the dim light and the large circle of shade
I have clomb, and to the whitening of the hills,
There where we see no color in the grass.
Natheless my longing loses not its green,
It has so taken root in the hard stone
Which talks and hears as though it were a lady.

Utterly frozen is this youthful lady,
Even as the snow that lies within the shade;
For she is no more moved than is the stone
By the sweet season which makes warm the hills
And alters them afresh from white to green
Covering their sides again with flowers and grass.

When on her hair she sets a crown of grass
The thought has no more room for other lady,
Because she weaves the yellow with the green
So well that Love sits down there in the shade –
Love who has shut me in among low hills
Faster than between walls of granite-stone.

She is more bright than is a precious stone;
The wound she gives may not be healed with grass:
I therefore have fled far over plains and hills
For refuge from so dangerous a lady;
But from her sunshine nothing can give shade –
Not any hill, nor wall, nor summer-green.

A while ago, I saw her dressed in green –
So fair, she might have wakened in a stone
This love which I do feel even for her shade;
And therefore, as one woos a graceful lady,
I wooed her in a field that was all grass
Girdled about with very lofty hills.

Yet shall the streams turn back and climb the hills
Before Love's flame in this damp wood and green
Burn, as it burns within a youthful lady,
For my sake, who would sleep away in stone
My life, or feed like beasts upon the grass,
Only to see her garments cast a shade.

How dark soever the hills throw out their shade,
Under her summer-green the beautiful lady
Covers it, like a stone covered in grass.

– Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Charles Townley (collector)
Discophorus statue in Sala della Biga at the Vatican
ca. 1768-1805
drawing
British Museum

Felice Giani
Angel
ca. 1800
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Centaur Chiron teaching young Achilles to hunt with a bow
ca. 1805
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Apollo killing Python
ca. 1796-98
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Design for column-capital with figures
1820
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Design for Columns honoring Italian Authors - Ariosto, Goldoni, Dante, Alfieri
before 1823
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Five Women at a Fountain
ca. 1810-23
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Apollo driving the Chariot of the Sun - design for Sala di Apollo e Diana, Palazzo Bianchetti, Bologna
drawing
ca. 1810-23
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Felice Giani
Temple of Fame (based on the Pantheon in Rome) - Design for Stage-curtain
ca. 1815
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Giuseppe Barberi
Architectural perspective study for ceiling decoration
before 1809
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Giuseppe Barberi
Four imaginary Palace interiors
before 1809
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum